Page "Fire Island" Paragraph 28

* The Great Hurricane of 1938 devastated much of the island and made it appear undesirable to many.

However, Duffy's Hotel remained relatively undamaged.

According to legend, the gay population began to concentrate in Cherry Grove at Duffy's Hotel with Christopher Isherwood and W. H. Auden dressed as Dionysus and Ganymede and carried aloft on a gilded litter by a group of singing followers.

The gay influence was continued in the 1960s when male model John B. Whyte developed Fire Island Pines.

The Pines currently has some of the most expensive property on the island and accounts for two-thirds of the island's swimming pools.